Leonardo DiCaprio showed his lighter side when he pranked his good friend Jonah Hill on the streets of New York City on August 1, 2016. The run-in in Manhattan’s trendy West Village quickly went viral, delighting fans by offering an insight into the actors’ close friendship.
DiCaprio and Hill have been friends since they starred together in Martin Scorsese’s 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” a performance that brought both actors widespread critical acclaim and Oscar nominations. The two have been friends off-stage as well, but this joke took the friendship to a completely different level of publicity.
Jonah Hill was walking that day, distracted by his phone, when a man suddenly ran up to him, shouting and holding up a smartphone as though snapping photos. Hill flinched and grimaced, shocked, his face twisted in terror and perplexity. But horror gave way to laughter when he realized that the “fan” was none other than DiCaprio himself and that he had set up the whole prank.
Clad in a casual blue T-shirt, cargo shorts, sunglasses, and a scruffy beard, DiCaprio went all out in his role as an over-the-top fan or paparazzo. In a black letterman’s jacket and baseball cap, Hill was surprised but didn’t miss a beat, smiling ear to ear and greeting DiCaprio in a friendly bear hug. The two laughed and joked with friends who approached to get in on the joke, enjoying the spontaneous humor.
The West Village, with its quaint streets and celebrity spotting, was the perfect setting for this surprise encounter. Hill later spoke about the prank in an interview with Howard Stern, confessing that he was “scared shitless” at the moment, his “heart stopped.” But he could not help but call the stunt “hysterical,” praising DiCaprio’s sense of humor.
“It was a great moment,”
Hill recalled,
“but I sympathized with Leo because what was supposed to be a joke among friends made global headlines.”
Captured on film by a paparazzi who happened to be in the vicinity, the entire incident took the internet by storm, raking in millions of views and cementing its place as one of Hollywood’s best celebrity pranks. For Leonardo DiCaprio, whose over-the-top acting skills in films like “The Revenant” and “Inception” are no secret, this prankster act revealed a lighter, humorous side. Hill, who was in New York promoting his film “War Dogs,” took it all in his stride, showing that their friendship could endure even the most extreme surprises.
